Two days ago we visited a friend, and you rolled off the play mat, across the entire living room floor, and halfway into the next room. It took you about thirty minutes and you were having SO MUCH fun. You've done a lot of single rolls this month, but that was seriously impressive. I need to put a giant blanket down for you now, instead of the little play mat. Because I put you on it a few days ago, and you rolled right off and started licking the tile floor. I might have died inside.
But I was primed for the moment by your cousin Piper who - in the blink of an eye - was splashing toilet bowl water in her face and mouth....at THE ZOO. I was pretty certain we would never be allowed to babysit again.
You have changed a lot this month. You love peek-a-boo and being tickled. When I would take your amber necklace on and off, you would giggle and I couldn't figure out why. One day I realized it was ticklish! Your neck is ticklish, as is your ribs and tummy. You prefer peek-a-boo when we just turn our heads away from you, then pop them back around again. I've even made you giggle by making silly faces!
You love to watch our facial expressions, and have started grabbing at my chin, lips, and nose, trying to see what is going on with my face when I make silly expressions. And you've started making plenty of your own silly expressions! You have mastered the pouty lower lip, and now the nose wrinkle.
You like to play in the walker (though you don't move around it in too much yet), an "exersaucer", your bouncer, and a play mat on the floor.
This is you on the play mat the day you learned to roll.
And the video.
Your favorite toys are a bell rattle, a small fabric turtle, the elephant on your car seat, and a stuffed brown bear.
Your cousin Isabel has been teaching you how to play this piano, and one day, you finally did it! She was so proud.
Because you are learning how to grab things with tighter, more controlled grip, I had to find a solution to keep you from clawing my chest, grabbing and pinching my skin near my collarbone and under my arms, while you are nursing. Even when your nails are trimmed, they are still sharp and strong! If I wear a necklace helps a lot, because you will often play with the necklace instead of my skin. Sometimes I throw a clean cloth diaper across my chest, and you will play with that. Other times, the only solution is to hold your hand. Then you play with my fingers and squeeze tightly to my hand. It prevents me from using my phone to check my email while I nurse you, but it's a nice trade-off to be holding your hand instead.
MY FAVORITES...
My favorite time of day with you is nursing you to sleep at night. You cuddle close in my arms, and we both are gently soothed to sleep.
The sweetest thing you started doing this month is reaching your arms out for me! The first time you did it, you were in the arms of your Aunt Mercy. She was done holding you, and walked closer to me, to hand you over. As she leaned toward me, you did too, stretching out your arms toward me. It was the first intentional movement you had made toward me, using your will combined with your body to say, wordlessly, "Mama!" Now you reach for me pretty much any time you see me. Most of the time, you are content to stay in the arms of whoever has you if I just come kiss you and say hello.
I know this is how the Lord feels when we finally realize we Want Him, and we choose with our will, to draw closer to Him. It's this surge of warmth and tenderness and compassion and desire. It is so amazing to be wanted by a God like Him.
STATS
19.4 lbs, 29 inches long. After being on a growth plateau for almost two months, this month you grew one inch, and almost one pound! The clothes you fit in are so varied. Rompers and onesies, or anything that has to get from your shoulders to crotch, requires 9-12 month size. Shirts you wear 3-6 month size. Shorts you wear 12 month size, because they have to fit over your bulky cloth diapers.
BED TIME ROUTINE AND NIGHT SLEEP
Times are still about the same. Your Daddy bathes you and reads you a story pretty much every night, between 6:00 and 6:45, depending on what time you took your last nap of the day. Then you nurse to sleep, and are in your bassinet no later than 8pm. You spent a couple weeks sleeping 6-8 hours at first, but then you migrated back to waking every three hours. Perhaps you are in a growth spurt. This coming month, we will transition you to sleep in your own room! It's going to be good for you I think, but I will go through withdrawal from not having you close by me all night long.
DAY SLEEP
You take all your naps in your bassinet now, unless we are on-the-go. If we are in the car at naptime, you will nap in the car. If we are at church or shopping, you will nap in the baby carrier. At home, the routine is, when you are tired and ready for naptime, I put you in the baby carrier. Then I walk around the house with your for 5-30 minutes, depending on how tired you are, and you eventually fall asleep in the baby carrier. Usually I throw a blanket over you once I see that you are really tired, so you stop looking around and go to sleep. Then after you've been asleep for five minutes, I gently put you down in your bassinet. If you cry a bit, I pat your back, and you go right to sleep. You nap from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours this way, twice a day!
DIAPERS
Still in cloth, except at night we are using disposables. I still like this system a lot.
EATING
You love to sit at the table with us at meal times, and you are extremely interested in putting things in your mouth, just like we are. Sometimes I give you a spoon, or a bowl, or a placemat, and it entertains you. Sometimes I have given you a large, solid piece of food like a slice of raw apple, a ring of dried apple, a raw carrot, or a raw sugar snap pea. You are extremely enthusiastic about eating food, but I'm trying to hold off until you are six months old, because that is best for your digestive system. I am interested in the approach that doesn't use baby food, but lets baby self-feed with chunks of food, from the very beginning. That will be a fun adventure beginning in just a few weeks!
And then there's the bottle. You finally learned to drink from one! We had to practice every single day for two weeks, and you finally accepted it. You will only drink about two ounces at a time, but it's enough to satisfy you temporarily. I am so much more peaceful on the day I go to work because I know you will be able to eat without me.
While trying to get you to take a bottle, we tried many things. A medicine dropper was the first thing you consistently would accept milk from. You also can drink from a straw now, because we gave you a straw in a water cup every day. We can't use the straw cup for milk yet though, because you tend to suck a bunch of water up quickly, and get overwhelmed by how much gets in your mouth, so you spit it out. At the end of a session where you have one or two ounces of water in a straw cup, your clothes are soaked from how much you spit out. People seem impressed that you can already drink from a straw though.
I'm impressed by how much babies learn, and how quickly they learn! Babies are a lot smarter than adults I think.
PHYSICAL skills
You are stronger and more mobile with each passing day! You can roll in any direction, and you scoot around sort of while flat on your back, sort of spinning in circles. You like to stand up while holding our hands, and I say, "Soooo strong!" And you laugh. You can move around in the walker, but I haven't seen you do it with motivation yet, so I'm not sure you realize you're moving yourself. You can almost sit up by yourself. You can sit up easily if supported just a bit.
VERBAL skills
You have stopped your sweet sounds while nursing, which makes me sad. You were such a noisy nurser when you were little, and even though it was pretty humorous sometimes, like in church, or when you were loud enough to disrupt a conversation I was trying to have while nursing you, I miss it.
You keep experimenting with your vocal chords though! It seems every few days, I hear sounds and pitches from you I've never heard before. High pitched squeals, sometimes of delight, other times of frustration.
THINGS we did
Your Uncle Davy came to visit!
We visited our friends Melissa, Ian, and Maribel. You and Maribel are two weeks apart, so you are doing similar things. Grabbing is in that category, so when we set you down next to each other, you both started grabbing, and found each other's hands. It's important to me not to encourage children to have boyfriends or girlfriends when they are still young, or to refer to friends by those names. So to me, this just felt sweet, like both of you were learning to make friends. There are other babies in church that you will be friends with too as you grow. And Ian loves to say hello to you and play with your toys, just like he does with his sister!
You hung out with Grandmama. These photos are taken at your cousin Aidan's fifth birthday party. I can't believe he is so grown up already! I remember being there the day he was born. He is a constant reminder to me that you will be growing up in the blink of an eye. I watch him, and think, what will four-year old Jax be like? What will five-year old Jax be like?
Aidan, at five years old, loves dinosaurs, his guinea pig, and really, animals of any kind. He is very gentle and compassionate. When we were in Houston with all five grandkids, and you were crying in the car, he would sing sweetly to you, for the entire drive. If he got you to calm down, even for a few minutes, he would yell excitedly, "Aunt Joy! I got Jax to stop crying!" When you visit his house each week while I go to work, he always asks when he gets to babysit you next.
You hung out with Daddy. He LOVES to play with you every day.
You hung out with Mommy.
So this is a funny story. Your Daddy and I went out to a newish burger joint in town, for dinner, toting you along. Shortly after we arrived, before our food was ready, you had a poopy diaper. Not just any poopy diaper. But the kind that leaks out in every direction, getting all over your outfit, socks, and car seat. And when I was changing you in the bathroom, it got all over the changing pad and everything nearby. I used so many wipes trying to get everything clean. Then I realized I hadn't replenished the diaper bag in a while, and you didn't have a spare outfit! I'm not one to have my baby wearing only a diaper in public, especially in a restaurant (and it was cold in there!). I kept digging in the diaper bag, and found a spare tank top of mine. It was grey with some lace around the neck. So I flipped it inside out, and put it on you, tying the straps behind your shoulders to keep it on. Then I put one of your cute diapers on that was blue with owls (most of your diaper covers are plain white). It kind of looked like you were wearing a dress, but that was better than you being without clothes at all! You can see in the photo above that it didn't bother you one bit! I hiked the tank top up around your hips as much as I could, so people could see your blue diaper and know you are a boy! And your Daddy took a photo of us so we could remember this silly moment.
This is how sweet you are. Sweet sleeping. Sweet awake. I kiss you all day long on your fuzzy hair, on your soft cheeks, on your forehead. You make my heart happy. Your Daddy and I love you so much. And Jesus loves you more. I pray you learn about Him at an early age, and fall in love with Him more and more as you grow. He is the greatest thing that could ever happen to you!
